Lady Macbeth essay.
A)
In act 1 scene, we see lady MacBeth reading a letter that her husband, MacBeth has sent her, it has been written as a soliloquy, she reads aloud to the audience how he has been given information about his future by a group of witches. MacBeth sent this letter to his wife quickly, he is was obviously pleased with the news and wanted her to know about it. This gives the audience the impression that Lady MacBeth was very dominant in their relationship, and by telling her about the prophecy she would know what to do. Lady MacBeth already knows that MacBeth is the Thane of Cawdor and according to the witches prophecy he will soon be King. But she says, “Yet do I fear thy nature. It is too full o’ milk of kindness To catch the nearest way.” Lady MacBeth is worried that her husband is to weak to do what has to be done. Already we see that Lady MacBeth has formed a plan. Lady MacBeth thinks that MacBeth will be King, and at this point in the play we start to see the evil side of her begin to come out. She decides that he is too kind and must be changed, “That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, and chastise with the valour of my tongue” she means she will persuade him to do what she wants. In her plan MacBeth must be ruthless, “the illness should attend” (a touch of evil) .She knows MacBeth would rather do it the right way rather than cheat to get what he wants. As the act continues the audience experiences exactly how evil Lady MacBeth can be. After hearing the news that Duncan the King is coming to stay at the castle, Lady MacBeth prepares herself for what her and her husband must do. She starts talking to the audience in a soliloquy, this whole speech is associated with evil. To audience in Shakespeare’s time this speech would seem unacceptable and very blasphemous. In this soliloquy Lady MacBeth calls upon all that is evil to help her in her quest, “Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here And fill me from crown to the top-full Of direst cruelty” Lady MacBeth calls upon evil to make her immune to remorse and make all that is good inside her evil, she tries to lose all her feminine qualities because she thins that by being a woman it would make her weaker. “Come to my woman’s breasts, And take my milk for gall, “ Lady MacBeth uses this sentence to show that she is ready to sacrifice everything for her husband. In scene 7, Lady MacBeth shows another side to her character She is trying to convince MacBeth to murder Duncan, “From this time Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valour As thou art in desire?” By questioning Macbeths love for she is morally blackmailing him into doing this deed, she also calls him a coward for getting what he wants, “Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’’ Like the poor cat i’ the adage?”she also makes fun of him, she is trying to make out that unless he does this he wont be a man. She is calling him chicken. In Shakespeare’s time killing a king was the worst sin, the plot that Lady MacBeth and her husband had would have resulted, in the eyes of the Shakespearean people being sent straight to hell. In scene 7 Lady MacBeth uses very powerful words to threaten MacBeth about keeping his promise, “I have given suck, and know How tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums, And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you Have done to this.” Being his wife, she knows that MacBeth will want children and by using this example of murdering their baby she is showing him how serious she is about his promise, once again it shows the power she has over him.
